ANNAPOLIS – Maryland lawmakers are far apart on dueling budget proposals that would raise income taxes for the state’s residents and shift hundreds of millions of dollars in teacher pension costs to local jurisdictions.
House and Senate leaders appointed to a conference committee have met twice so far this week — both on Monday — to scour the budgets line by line. Only a few dozen minor items were settled, and lawmakers have not met since. The General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn in five days.
A meeting scheduled for Tuesday was canceled because lawmakers had made no progress on coming to some agreement on the biggest issues. No meetings were scheduled for Wednesday.
“I wish things would move along more rapidly, but there is a huge difference between the House and Senate positions,” said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.
Miller warned senators to keep their schedules clear after the scheduled April 9 end of the General Assembly, suggesting the session may have to be extended to reach a budget deal.
The Senate approved a plan that would raise income taxes on all Marylanders earning more than $3,000 and passed a controversial half-millionaire’s tax, which levies 5.75 percent on every dollar earned by residents making more than $500,000.
Delegates stripped the half-millionaire’s tax from the budget, and opted to raise taxes only on residents earning more than $100,000.
Members of the House aren’t willing to increase taxes for the state’s lowest-earning residents, said Del. Kumar Barve, D-Montgomery, a member of the conference committee.
“We don’t want to raise taxes on something like 90 percent of Marylanders,” Barve said. “We’re willing to consider either further spending cuts or take a closer look at the higher income tax brackets.”
But the House plan raises $222.7 million, less than half the new revenue generated by the Senate’s income tax proposal, which would add $501.3 million to state coffers — money that is essential to solving Maryland’s structural deficit, Miller said.
“It’s very hard to compromise in the sense that we have this huge structural deficit, and if we don’t raise more revenues than what the House is proposing we’re going to have to do the same thing next year, or else cut much more deeply,” Miller said.
Lawmakers plan to meet Thursday morning to hash out a few more minor compromises to the budget, according to Warren Deschenaux, director of the Department of Legislative Services.
Deschenaux had warned Monday that the committee should aim to finish the budget by Wednesday, but that was before it became clear that lawmakers from both chambers would be at work in Annapolis on Saturday in an effort to finish the session on time Monday night, he said.
